Darth Vader Revealed in Star Wars: Battlefront 2

To literally nobody’s surprise, EA have confirmed Darth Vader’s presence in the upcoming Star Wars: Battlefront 2. As one of the most iconic villains ever, it was pretty obvious that he was going to be included. On top of that, as he has also appeared in literally every game in this franchise, his absence would have been a far greater shock.

Still, it is nice to see a familiar face, and, judging from the gameplay trailer released alongside this news, Vader looks as great as ever. Watching him seamlessly slice through a rebel squad before choking the life out of their captain is as gleefully satisfying to us sadists as ever. Personally, I am more interested to see some of the other characters EA have promised to include, such as Kylo Ren and the classic Emperor Palpatine, but it is still great to see the old asthmatic maniac in action.

EA’s Star Wars: Battlefront 2 is their follow-up to their rather underwhelming reboot of the series in 2015. The last game was multiplayer only, featured very few maps, characters and no space battles. All of the aforementioned features were included in the original Pandemic Battlefront games, which begs the question of why they even bothered to revive the franchise if they aren’t adding anything to it? Indeed, they only removed features that made the original games great. On top of this, the game was bogged down with expensive DLC and subscriptions to EA’s dreaded season passes.

Amazingly, however, EA seem like they are actually trying to address the concerns of their audience with Star Wars: Battlefront 2. The new game will feature a single player campaign (though it remains to be seen as to whether it is more than four hours long), more characters, maps and is even letting us fight battles in each Star Wars era.

The only real thing I have to begrudge about the game so far is its title. I mean, seriously? You’re just going to name it the same thing as the sequel released 12 years ago? Do you want to make it confusing to talk about? Steam have already renamed my copy of Pandemic’s Battlefront II to “Classic, 2005”. At least Valve are trying to clear things up a bit, as opposed to the schlubs at EA.

Anyway, Star Wars: Battlefront 2 is scheduled for release on November 17. Pick it up and see if EA have salvaged this once great series or just ruined everything like they usually do.